


Apples, Trees and Roots

by J_Maria



Series: The Black Heir [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Dysfunctional Family, Family Drama, Gen, Magic Revealed, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-20 20:24:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1524395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Maria/pseuds/J_Maria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faith learns something new about her origins and how the past can be changed with just a tiny matter of perception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Best of Times

_  
The Best of Times_

 

The most her ma ever said about her dad was that he liked fast cars and good-time girls. Then one night when Marni Lehane was in a chemo-riddled ball of agony, she’d confessed to nine year old Faith that she’d been conceived in the backseat of a ‘73 Pontiac GTO in the summer of ’82 to the Styx song  _The Best of Times_. Marni had gone on about that car - which she and her ’cousin’ had won playing pool back in the summer of ‘80 and how Marni‘s no good brothers had tried more than once to steal from her - for a half an hour before remembering she‘d meant to talk about Faith‘s father. 

“He tried to hide it, ya know? But I could tell he was a rich boy slummin’, oh, but Faithie, baby, he was worth it to get you,” Marni laughed sadly. “Had to sell that GTO to your Uncle Jimmy though, that little sniveling bastard. He wrecked it not a week after his check cleared. Stupid drunk.”

But Marni had never told Faith that she’d lost more than her precious GTO when she’d gotten knocked up by a rich foreign boy who never came back for her. Her strict Irish Catholic parents had kicked her out of the house at nineteen, and she’d picked up smoking to keep herself skinny to get tips at the local diner she’d worked at nightly while her baby girl slept in the back supply room because she couldn’t afford a sitter. And that vanity would end up costing her life in the long run. Or that every scumbag boyfriend of hers had been a poor replacement for Sirius. It had really been the best of times, back when Marni had been free to be a good-time girl cruising around in a fast car.


	2. Sweet Child O'Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my world, Faith was born in ‘83 (Buffy was born in ‘81, Kendra in ‘82), and Harry’s birth year is obviously pushed back. Faith was 15/16 in season 3 - making her 20/21 in season 7/book 5, so Harry was born in ‘87/’88 making him closer in age to Dawn. Also making up her mother and her Watcher’s name (which I don’t think they ever mentioned and I’m too lazy to go look it up).

_Sweet Child O’Mine_

Faith had never known that Kathleen O’Riley had tried valiantly to track down her family until after Sunnydale had collapsed in on itself and Giles had been able to go over the Watcher‘s records of her time caring for the then potential slayer. She remembered Katie every day. The Watcher had showed up a few months before Marni had died, breaking it gently to both mother and the eleven year old that she might one day be called to save the world. The latest slayer had just died - two before Buffy.  
  
Katie had ripped into her grandparents who hadn’t even attended her mother’s funeral less than nine months after Katie had come to find her. Her Uncles Jimmy and Joey weren’t any use because both hopped in and out of jail. Her mother’s ‘cousin’ Mary had died in ‘83 not long after Faith had been born, and her husband and sons left sporadic contact info.  
  
As far as Faith had been concerned, she’d only had her mother and her watcher for family and fuck the rest of them. And for the longest time, she’d felt she’d failed both women. She hadn’t been able to cure her mother, and she’d froze when she could have saved her watcher.  
  
“Miss O’Riley knew who your father was, Faith,” Giles had said quietly, once they’d recouped long enough to make sense of all their information. He’d pulled her aside, so she knew it wasn’t good news.  
  
“I figured Ma gave Katie a name, but he lit out on us so screw him, ya know?” Faith sniffed at the dust from the books G-man had had her sifting through, not from any piddly girly emotion.  
  
“He was a wizard,” Giles sighed.  
  
“Huh? How’d Ma land a  _wizard_?” Faith frowned. “And how did Katie figure this out?”  
  
“Do you remember anything  _odd_  happening when you were around eleven or so?”  
  
“Besides my Ma dying from cancer and Katie popping up? No.” Except she had a fuzzy recollection of her ma’s clothes flying around to Guns ’N’ Roses’  _Sweet Child O’Mine_  minutes before her Ma and Katie had come back from a doctor’s visit.  
  
“Ms. O’Riley notes that when you were eleven, the Coven in England contacted her as well as a prominent Wizarding school.”  
  
“Cause my sperm donator was a wizard?” Faith frowned.  
  
“And because your letter telling you of your enrollment in the school had been held back, it would seem.”  
  
“G-man, you’re confusin’ the hell outta me, so just say whatcha gotta say,” Faith crossed her arms.  
  
“Because of your slayer potential The Council, the Coven and your watcher decided it was best that your growing powers be nullified,” Giles sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.  
  
“They  _neutered_ me, magically?” Faith felt her jaw pop at the revelation. “The Council and this  _Coven_  decided my future?”  
  
“It seems the Coven and Council were swayed because of  _who_  your father is, and on the authority of a family member within the Coven.”  
  
“Some  _bitch_ who never even met me decided my fate? Who the fuck was this bastard? Their little Morty bitch who’s got all the little witches and wizards in a tizzy?”  
  
“Sirius Black. He was convicted of murdering thirteen people, including one of his closest friends.”  
  
“A con. Convicted of murder. Apple don’t fall far from tree, does it?” Faith shook her head hard. “Are you fucking kidding me, Giles?”  
  
“I have it on the best authorities that he was framed, Faith,” Giles laid a hand on her shoulder, which she shrugged off.  
  
She’d been in jail for nearly four years before Angel had gotten her record expunged or some bullshit. She still didn’t like to be touched without clear hand signals prior to the touching.  
  
“I can see if I can arrange for you to meet him, if you like. According to my sources, he never knew your mother was pregnant. The member of the Coven felt it was in your best interest that growing up as a potential was better than being ridiculed for being the daughter of a then convicted murderer.”  
  
“An early death was preferable to sullying the family name?” Faith shook her head.  
  
“Yes, that does sum up Narcissa Malfoy’s idea of best interests,” a strange British voice said from the doorway. “But, at that time I’m sure she was thinking more of her six year old son Draco’s reputation than her cousin’s only child.”


	3. Daddy's Little Girl

_Daddy’s Little Girl_

Remus Lupin would have claimed her as a Black even if Rupert hadn’t alerted him to the fact. The squaring of her shoulders, the wry laugh of disbelief and the bugger-all attitude that he’d seen for seven years on his one of his best mate’s face marked her as Padfoot’s daughter. He even remembered when she must have been conceived.

  
Two years after their 7th year, Padfoot and he had been in Boston, trying to find allies within the Salem Academy graduates. Remus had been serious in their task, and also was making tentative connections with various shifter communities, and Sirius had been enraptured by a petite brunette with a cherry red auto.  
  
Remus almost hadn’t believed Dumbledore when he’d told him of Sirius’ daughter. If he hadn’t recalled that trip to Boston - a trip he almost  _hadn’t_  gone on in favor of Peter - he would claim the girl was lying. He rubbed a hand over his face, seeing so much of his friend and that youthful American Muggle in her.  
  
“Who’s this Narcissa bitch to me?” Faith crossed her arms and stared at him.  
  
“Your father’s first cousin, one of three that he has,” Remus gave her a small smile. Blast Sirius for being too cautious - for a change - to come here and meet with his daughter. They all knew that Voldemort might try and use him to lure Harry out of safety.  
  
“You his boyfriend?” Faith gave him a slow one-over.  
  
“No. We’re old friends. I’m Remus Lupin,” he stretched out his hand, feeling a foreboding sense of déjà vu.  
  
“You’re more than a wizard. What kinda demon you got up in you?” Her fingers twitched, and she glanced at Rupert.  
  
“I am a lycanthrope,” Remus sighed. As a slayer - which had he not gotten conformation from Dumbledore nearly three hours ago, he still wouldn’t have believed they existed - she was more sensitive to the magical disturbance his other nature gave off.  
  
“Werewolf would have been easier to say,” she shook her head at him.  
  
“Do you have a distaste for -”  
  
“Look, Lupin, long as you don’t go humpin’ my leg or try to make a chew toy outta me, we’re five by five, ya get me?” She waited for the slow nod of his head before continuing. “Now, you gonna explain why it is you’re the one telling me about my bitch of a cousin and my ex-con of a  _father_?”


	4. Black Sheep

_Black Sheep_

Faith tightened her jaw and prepared for the - hell, could there be anything worse than finding out your pops couldn’t even man up and bring himself to break bad news to you? Not that she should even really care what he had to say. She leveled her eyes on the pretentious werewolf who’d gotten the sucker job of making nicey-nice with Black’s bastard. At least he had the decency to look bothered by the situation. He got props for that.  
  
“You gonna spit it out?”  
  
“Sirius - your father - hasn’t exactly been cleared of his charges,” Lupin shared a look with G-man. “As such, it’s not safe for him to -”  
  
“And your protecting something bigger than him, so you’re not willing to take a  _real_  convict to meet and greet, am I right?” Faith shook her head.  
  
“Faith,” Giles rubbed at his brow again.  
  
“Nah, it’s cool. I get it. So why the sudden interest in me now? What dirty deed you need done cheap?” Faith swaggered over to Giles’ desk and leaned back on it, feeling like she had with the Mayor, before her year long sleep.  
  
“That’s not why I made contact with them, Faith,” Giles said sternly.  
  
“You responsible for all the shit the Council did to me now, G?” Faith didn’t look back at him, keeping her eyes locked on her  _father’s_  closest friend. It stunk, this situation. And she wanted word to get back to them - her father’s family that had made these decisions about her life without asking  _her_  - about what they’d signed her up for when they nullified her. “You responsible for them sending two green Watchers out to watch my ass? For the knife they wanted to stick in my back when their shit backfired on me  _three_  times? For choosing death over magic? No, far as I can tell, all you’re responsible for is trying to make the best outta a bad situation. And let me tell you, wolf-boy, I was fucked up. Still am.”  
  
“Sirius  _wanted_ to be here, but with Harry -”  
  
“Harry? Who the fuck is Harry?” Faith narrowed her eyes.  
  
Before Remus could even form a reply, a loud pop sounded in the far corner of the room. Giles sighed behind her, and Faith popped up from her lean ready for a fight. A petite woman raced up behind Remus, who only huffed out an exaggerated breath. Her hair was a shock of neon blue and red, and her brown eyes sparkled with mischief.  
  
“Wotcher, Wolvie,” she grinned at Remus’ back. “Bloody hell, she looks just like him in the eyes, don’t she? I almost didn’t believe Dumbledore.”  
  
“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else,  _Nymphadora_ ,” Remus hissed out behind him.  
  
Faith almost jerked back at the way her eyes narrowed. It reminded her so much of herself that it freaked her out. Nymphadora punched him on the shoulder. It was a stupid little one-fisted girly punch that should have lacked any power, but the sturdier werewolf jerked forward about two feet. Faith’s eyes widened. Not much shocked her - she’d seen and done more in her short life to shock her easily. The force of the punch obviously shocked her as well, but the blush that followed was incriminating.  
  
“Don’t call me that, Lupin!” Nymphadora huffed. She pasted a smile to her face and stuck out a hand to Faith. “You must be Sirius’ girl.”  
  
“I ain’t anybody’s girl but my own,” Faith felt that itch at the back of her neck that she always felt around B, but that she’d never said she’d felt back. Huh, must be the magic. “Who’re you, Nymphie?”  
  
“Nymphadora Tonks,” Remus answered before she could.  
  
“Just Tonks,” she grinned. “I’m your cousin.”  
  
“My cousin the witch who just found out she’s got Slayer strength?” Faith crossed her arms. “So that’s why you decided to look up the black sheep of the damn family. Cause you need something from me. Fuckin’ figures.”


	5. Lamb's Tales

_Lamb’s Tales_

Tonks chewed at her lip at the pain rolling off the woman who was her long-lost cousin. She let her hand fall to her hip. When Dumbledore had assigned her to shadowing Remus as protection, she’d been hurt that he hadn’t sent her to meet her cousin. Sirius had looked so stunned that he’d had a daughter when they’d been told five days ago. Added with the fact of what had been done to her - her magic bound for her Muggle heritage as a Slayer - had baffled him.  
  
Coupled with her own emergence of Slayer powers, the truth from the Coven on her Aunt and Great-Aunt’s actions of nearly a decade ago. She shuddered at what  _could_ have been her own fate, had both of her parents not been wizards and had she not had that little quirk of hers. She tried to school her emotions and keep the grin on her face.  
  
“No, actually, I don’t need you for help controlling unseemly power bursts,” Tonks let her nose grow hooked and turned her hair platinum blonde with riotous curls, her chest expanding and her legs lengthening to make her statuesque.  
  
“Wow, magic can make you into Baghead-bang Barbie,” Faith drawled. “Am I supposed to be impressed by this, G?”  
  
“Damnit, Nymphadora! No one is supposed to know about that!” Remus snapped at her.  
  
“She’s family,” Tonks shrugged and shifted back into her ‘normal’ form. “And stop calling me that.”  
  
“I ain’t shit to your family. I don’t  _want_ shit from your family. And if you don’t need me, then I’m out, G-man.”  
  
“Faith, wait!” Tonks cried, stepping between her and the door. “Please. Will you talk to me?”  
  
“Why? Why should I even bother?”  
  
“Because you’re my little cousin, and I don’t have many of those,” Tonks shook her head at the neediness in her tone. Her father was an only child, her evil Aunt Bellatrix had never spawned - thank Merlin, and all she had was Sirius and Draco. One had been in prison for a little less than half her life and the other wouldn’t be caught dead speaking to a relation with Muggle in their bloodline.  
  
“Not interested in playing happy family right now, Tonks,” Faith shrugged past her.  
  
Tonks felt her shoulders droop in defeat. She was determined not to snivel over this. It would only prove Dumbledore right, and honestly, she hated it when he was right. Bad things always happened when he was right, the old coot. She felt Remus’s hand on her shoulder, and a tiny frisson of heat curled up her spine. Tonks straightened her spine and turned to give Remus and Mr. Giles her most dazzling smile.  
  
“Don’t worry, I’ll win her over. Even if it kills me.”  
  
“How exactly did they get away with it?” Giles asked, leaning forward on the desk.  
  
“Who? The Old Coven?” Tonks asked. “Twenty years ago, Walburga Black  _ran_  the Coven with an iron fist. Dear Great-Auntie was a pure-blood fanatic.”  
  
“Faith’s paternal Grandmother?”  
  
“Yes,” Remus sighed. “Far as we can piece together, the moment Faith was born with that flicker of Magic, her name was sent to the registry. Any child born with a flickering of magic has their name sent automatically into a registry at a Ministry of Magic, no matter the country or continent. And if a child is born of at least one Magically inclined parent, their names are sent on to a tentative school enrollment at Hogwarts, or to the magical school in the country of their Magical parent.”  
  
“Because Sirius was her father, Faith’s name was set down at Hogwarts,” Tonks frowned. “I could have definitely used her on the Quidditch pitch against the Slytherins. Natural athletic ability runs in the Black family. Except for Draco, but that I blame on the Malfoy blood.”  
  
“Tonks,” Remus frowned at her.  
  
“Right. So, Great-Aunt Walburga found out that she had a granddaughter sired on a Muggle, and that turned her twelve shades of purple. I do believe she sent a howler to my mum for setting a bad example by getting a whelp on a Mudblood. I was all of four at the time. But at the same time that Faith’s name was being put down on the Potential Slayer list. The Coven’s Seer foresaw her wielding a sword and a wand. Walburga, of course, was convinced that Faith would never rise above her Muggle taint.”  
  
“And the Council didn’t come looking for Faith until she was ten,” Giles looked ill. “Bloody hell.”  
  
“Such a sweetheart. But, ten years ago, Walburga was already gone. She’d passed on not long after cousin Regulus. And seeing as Auntie Narcissa was her favorite, she left it up to the Malfoy branch to ensure her disowned son never knew of his daughter. Sirius had already been in Azkaban for five years,” Tonks sighed.  
  
“Walburga wasn’t original enough plan it all out by herself. It was an old system long before Faith arrived to make it personal,” Remus shook his head. “Wizarding families faced with having their daughters sacrificed to save the Muggle world need only drop a word to certain Coven members to keep their daughters safe.”  
  
“Binding either the Slayer gift or the Witch gift on a need by need basis. For a tidy sum of course,” Tonks shifted her eyes to the partially closed door.   
  
“And here I thought that only the Council had been corrupt. Now apparently even the Coven is suspect,” Giles rubbed at the bridge of his nose.  
  
“Well, your wandless wonder witch fixed that. Her magic was strong enough to break the binding spells on those witches and slayers already affected,” Tonks eased towards the door, the prickling feeling gone. “I should have been called first.  _I_ broke the line of Chosen ones, you know. Layla, me, India, Buffy, Kendra, then Faith.”  
  
“I had worked out that there was a gap between Layla and India’s ages,” Giles heard the irrational guilt in her voice.  
  
“But now I wonder if Walburga’s ‘saving’ me caused fate to Call Faith,” Tonks said mournfully.  
  
Part of her wished that her little cousin had stayed hidden behind the door to hear the remorse in her words. And part of her was happy that she couldn’t lay unnecessary anger and resentment on already burdened shoulders.


	6. Sheep's Clothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wasn’t going to include Sirius in this story at all…yeah, that worked out well. His fate is still pretty much set in stone, but he has a good reason for not being there - not that Faith will know that or see it as being an excuse.

Sirius prowled behind the hedgerow at the border of the Council property Rupert ‘Ripper’ Giles had taken over for his girls. Dumbledore had made a big show of sending off Remus and Tonks to approach his daughter. Sirius shook his shaggy head, still trying to wrap that one around his mind. Him - a father. He’d never really imagined it before.  
  
No, that wasn't true. He had imagined children in his future - James and Lilly’s children, Remus’s children, hell, even Peter’s children had been in that imagined life. He was to have been the doting godfather, the one who took the kids for the day so their parents could bond, and then return them at the end of the evening. Followed by him and some random witch imitating the baby making process without actually making the baby.  
  
 _“I've been to a Seer, Sirius. It doesn't end well for us_.”  
  
His cousin Andromeda’s words from when they were barely more than children echoed in his memory as he watched the back door creaked open. A shapely brunette slipped through the door, shrugging on a denim jacket over a skimpy top. Her heavy boots made little noise as she stalked across the lawn. He’d have known her in a heartbeat. Her stance, that was all his mother’s. Walburga owns the world, he used to call it. Walburga had run the home with an iron fist, but once long ago, she’d loved  _both_  her sons. Until Sirius learned to speak for himself.  
  
The girl -  _his daughter_  - stopped at the swing set that had seen better days and sat down in the one closest to the hedgerow. His too sensitive ears heard the rhythmic slap of a cigarette box against flesh, heard the snick of a faithful Zippo lighter and smelt the tang of the tobacco.  
  
He hedged forward on his belly, squeezing in the tiny opening, trying his damnedest to ignore the odd little multihued squirrel that was sniffing around the little tree planted less than four feet away from the swings. Sirius spared her a glance, but the girl’s eyes were locked on the squirrel as well.  
  
“Fuck!” Faith stabbed her cigarette out on her boot. Definitely his daughter. “Fuck! I am  _not_  gonna let her mind games fuck me over. Oh, I‘m a poor little witch-slayer. Oh, I‘ve got fucking amazing powers. Be my cousin, Faithie. I have no one. Got more than me, now didn’t she?”  
  
Sirius bit back a growl. Tonks had blown her cover. She should have known better. It was that damned Hufflepuff streak in her. The damned need to be useful and loved. Hell, he’d felt it a time or two as a child. The Black family made you grow up cold. Sirius crawled closer, laying his head down in the sand at the edge of the swing set. He was trying to make himself appear much smaller. Considering her skill set as a slayer, it was to his benefit that she not be surprised by his appearance. Surprised equaled dead doggy, and he definitely did not want to be dead, not now that he’d found out about his daughter.  
  
To her credit, she only raised an eyebrow at him. Perhaps she could sense he was trying to be non-threatening.  
  
“I ain’t a stupid kid you know, Wolf-boy,” Faith snorted, turning her face up to the sun, as if that could explain the sudden sheen to her eyes.  
  
Sirius’s head jerked up, his ears perking up. She thought he was  _Remus_? He cocked his head to the side, pretending to be a big dumb old dog. Faith glanced down at him.  
  
“Whatever. I’m not gonna spill my guts so you can run back to - whatever,” Faith sniffed at the cool breeze. “I can  _feel_  you’re off, you know. I’m not fooled by the damn dumb dog trick.”  
  
Sirius belly-crawled forward, resting his head on her foot. Faith cocked the brow again, and he was reminded of pretty Marni’s own face when he’d mocked her that one time.  
  
“ _You doubting my ability do a J-turn, Rich Boy? Oh, you have sadly misjudged what a Southie girl can do.”  
  
_ “You think just because you’re wearing a dog’s face I won’t kick you for putting your head on my boot?” Faith’s voice even sounded a bit like Marni’s. She eyed him for another minute. “You got balls, man. I’ll give you that.”  
  
There was even a little admiration in her voice. She’d be looking at Moony differently now, and the old wolf wouldn't have a clue why she admired him. Sirius felt a pang of jealousy. She should be admiring  _his_  boldness, not his best mate’s. But if he transformed into himself, Faith wouldn't know him, and she would very likely lash out at him before he could admit who he was.   
  
“Cut from the same fuckin’ cloth,” Faith shook her head. “Goddamn shrink in the joint. Got me talking to a fuckin’ dog boy. What the hell did my  _pops_  ever give me? Inferiority complex, abandonment issues, daddy-fuckin’ issues, and an inability to cope well with grief. Grandparents - either set, apparently - didn’t want me, two of my uncles were just too fuckin’ dumb to care. They were the kind of idiots to get put away for robbin’ a liquor store and as soon as they got out, hit up the one next door to the first one. Ma died of cancer keepin’  _me_  fed because she was too proud to beg for help. My watcher finds out about my ‘family’ and gets me neutered as a witch. And then  _I_ get her killed because I freeze up against a big bad. Only to find out, I’m not the only one and big bad Buffy is the bestest slayer around with the happy life, and awesome watcher, and I’m just the back-up dancer.”  
  
A large decorative birdbath about fifteen feet away suddenly erupted, water splashing in every direction and chunks of cement imbedding themselves into the fence. Sirius’s dog eyes widened, and the scrunched up cigarette fell limply from her fingers. Tonks raced out the back door, wand at the ready, Rupert just behind her. Sirius hoped that Remus was too busy to come out, because then she would be exploding  _him_  a she had with the birdbath.  
  
“What the fuck was that?”  
  
Apparently, Tonks never got around to explaining that when the Wiccan had given all girls with potential the powers of a Slayer, that she had also ‘popped’ the suppressing spell the Coven had placed on those potentials who were witches as well. Which included Faith.


	7. Coven Inquiry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry made glass disappear when he was angry at his cousin, Faith had to blow up a birdbath with her anger at her cousin. Seemed fitting.

Sirius had had to slink away before Remus had shown up, but part of him was still in that back garden with his daughter.  _Someone will pay for what they did to my girl_ , Sirius thought on a growl as he apparated to his childhood home. Faith could have been one of the strongest witches of her age, and instead someone in the Coven had been determined to eradicate her from the wizarding world. He was  _livid_.  
  
“Sirius, you were not to expose yourself,” Albus Dumbledore said quietly from behind him.  
  
“Get her here  _now_ , Dumbledore,” Sirius narrowed his eyes at the man he’d always respected. “She was part of the damned Coven.”  
  
“She is  _not_  a member of the Order,” Dumbledore countered.  
  
“Would you really rather  _I_  go to  _Narcissa_  and handle things that way?”  
  
“I will see what I can do,” Albus said quietly.  
  
Sirius took a deep breath, trying to calm the rage within him as his daughter’s words poured back over his mind. Merlin! And somehow, he found himself at the curtain covered portrait of his mother. On impulse, he snatched it back and actually watched the image shrink away from the sight of him. It had never done that before.  
  
“Even her  _bloody portrait_  knew about  _my daughter_ ,” Sirius yelled at the portrait, who only sneered back at him.  
  
“That  _muggle whelp_ survived?” Walburga Black’s portrait howled angrily.  
  
“I should burn your damn portrait for saying that about your granddaughter!” Sirius growled at her.  
  
“Magically enchanted against that!’ the portrait cackled back at him.  
  
“You’ve resorted to arguing with her portrait, Sirius?” a calm voice said from behind him, cutting off whatever reply he would have made to his mother’s portrait. Sirius’s spine stiffened as he turned to face his cousin.  
  
Andromeda Tonks had always been a pretty woman. Once upon a time, all of the Black sisters had been. Age might have sent the silver streaks into his favorite cousin’s dark chocolate hair, and added life lines around her eyes and mouth, but it hadn’t detracted from her beauty. Sirius hadn’t laid eyes on her in nearly sixteen years, and he would have never imagined that this would have been the reason for their reunion.  
  
“Dumbledore works fast,” Sirius blinked, some of his anger lessened just by seeing her again.  
  
“I was waiting for Nymphadora to return to her flat,” Andromeda smiled softly at him, worry clear in her eyes for her only child. “We’d planned to dine together this afternoon before she was called away on  _business_.”  
  
“Old  _Coven_  business,” Sirius scowled at her.  
  
“I was never part of the Coven, Sirius,” Andromeda shook her head. “I lost my right to Mother’s seat when I married Ted. Which is why I was thoroughly shocked that Dumbledore would request my presence on the pretext of Coven business.”  
  
“Did you know?”  
  
“Know what?”  
  
“Dromeda, don’t even start with me, woman,” Sirius ground out, leveling his cousin with the hardest of glares.  
  
“I am quite sure I didn’t hear that tone with you, Sirius Black, especially since this is the first time I’ve seen you in sixteen years and you’ve been free from Azkaban for the last three,” Andromeda crossed her arms and stared at him. “Now what  _Coven_  business are we speaking of?”  
  
“The Coven’s decision to bind  _my daughter’s_  magic because she carried the Slayer Potential,” Sirius snapped, pacing away from her.   
  
“They did  _what?_ ” Andromeda hissed out, her anger and outrage clear enough in her voice that he no longer doubted her sincerity. “You foolish old bat!”  
  
Sirius watched the image of his mother  _flee_  the combined wrath of the Black cousins. He turned back to face his cousin, shocked at what he saw. The normally collected Andromeda had actually whipped out her wand, ready to do the portrait harm. Tears of anger in her eyes, her hand trembled as she lowered her wand. He nodded to the sitting room off the hallway, needing to discuss this in private.  
  
“Did - is it too late -” Andromeda asked quietly.  
  
“She lives,” Sirius shook his head. “But she almost didn’t. So many things could have gone wrong for her. She could have died a thousand times over without me ever even knowing she was alive.”  
  
“How old is she? What’s her name? Where is she?”  
  
“You knew Tonks had been spared being Chosen?” Sirius asked again, deflecting her questions. He’d already had to share her existence with Remus, Tonks and Dumbledore. He wasn’t quite ready to share his daughter with anyone else.  
  
“Unfortunately, that I did know,” Andromeda looked guilty. “It was the last time I spoke civilly to your mother. Uncle Orion - she shared everything with him, Sirius - he knew about Nymphandora’s quirk gift.” Andromeda had always had a soft spot for his father, and Sirius had never understood the man himself. Merlin knew, they’d both been blasted off the family tree quick enough. But now he had to wonder if that could have been lain on his mother’s quick and decisive temper. “He pleaded with both Walburga and Narcissa to sway the Coven. I never asked for it, but her gift was too rare.”  
  
“You kept in touch with the old man?” Sirius frowned at her.  
  
“Walburga and Mother disowned me because of Ted, but once I had Nymphadora, I started receiving letters from Uncle Orion. Bellatrix might have been your mother’s favorite, but I had always been your father’s favorite niece,” Andromeda smiled sadly. “Your mother - she didn’t live long after Regulus disappeared.”  
  
“My sniveling little brother  _died_ ,” Sirius spat out.  
  
“Just because that blasted family tree says he does, doesn’t make it so,” she shook her head. “There was never a body to bury, Sirius. He came to visit me, you know. Not long before he disappeared, asking me similar questions. If I knew what the Coven was up to, if I had any idea what they were doing. I assumed he’d meant binding Nymphandora’s slayer potential. But it’s quite possible your mother lashed out at him - especially if it was concerning your own daughter’s magic being bound. Merlin!”  
  
“Bloody hell,” Sirius did not like the idea that his brother had known about his daughter before he had.  
  
“She felt so guilty, Uncle Orion said. That her last words to Regulus had been in anger, but he’d never known why. Regulus had stormed past him and then - nothing. No word, and whispers of Death Eaters getting the Traitor’s brother. For a while, they even whispered that you must have done off with him. Uncle Orion - he lost so much so quickly,” Andromeda said quietly. “And he never knew of your daughter. That I do know for certain, because he  _wanted_  a grandchild so very badly, Sirius.”  
  
“A pureblood grandchild, Dromeda,” Sirius sighed. “Her mother was a Muggle.”  
  
“I honestly don’t think he would have cared. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have honored Regulus’s will so diligently.”  
  
“Why did my brother have a will?”  
  
“Regulus went to the states for two years, when he was fresh out of school. I don’t know the exact details of course, but everyone speculated at the time that it was on Voldemort’s request, just as you and Remus Lupin went there two years prior to gain allies,” Andromeda sat down wearily. “But he was a very different young man when he returned. Even I could see it, and we rarely saw him. More serious, more cautious. Anyway, when Uncle Orion came to me just before he passed ten years ago, he asked me to oversee a trust that Regulus had set up.”  
  
“A trust?” Sirius felt ill.  
  
“When the young woman reached 21, she was to inherit a small fortune in Wizarding money. It’s been gaining interest for sixteen years,” Andromeda folded her hands. “I just had always assumed it had been his daughter, not yours.”  
  
“Her name is Faith, she’s not yet 21, and I’ve never met her,” Sirius held his head in his hands. “She’s a Slayer, has been since she was fifteen, and she accidentally killed a man. I’ve done nothing for her, her paternal grandmother cursed her, and apparently, her uncle and grandfather ensured she’d have money to fall back on.”  
  
“Merlin, that poor girl,” Andromeda sighed.  
  
“You heard about the Earth-magic witch who called all of the slayers?” Sirius asked after several long minutes.  
  
“What? That’s not possible - the Coven strongly regulates that -”  
  
“The Coven is twelve wand carrying witches and one Earth-magic witch,” Sirius recalled his mother’s lectures on why she was cursed with male offspring who could not replace her in her beloved Coven of Thirteen.  
  
“The Earth-magic witch no longer practices with them, hasn’t since your mother took over the Coven. I heard she started her own coven in Devon. Her leaving the Coven would weaken them considerably,” Andromeda paled. “Nymphadora -”  
  
“Is one of a thousand or more slayers. Along with my daughter.”  
  
“Merlin.”  
  
~*~  
  
Faith couldn’t stop looking at the broken birdbath, her eyes fixed on it. Tonks - her cousin - was babbling on about how she was a witch now. That her magic had been unlocked. Tonks, it seemed, could roll with the punches. She was used to having extraordinary gifts tossed on her head. Her cousin  _hadn’t_  come to her because she needed something from Faith. Tonks had actually come to help  _her_.  
  
Talk about fucking throwin’ her for a loop.


End file.
